…a boomer muses about life, change, joys, sorrows and freedom from the prison of corporate life.

“Dating in the Dark” Finale

Near the first of the month, I wrote this post on the new show “Dating in the Dark.” To briefly recap the premise for those of you who didn’t read it, three men and three women are segregated in a house and come together only in a common room that is pitch black. We see the action via infra-red cameras, as they get to know each other on the basis of personality, smell, voice, and touch. At the end, they each get to choose the one person they’d like to see in the light. The “reveal” is only about 10 seconds long, after which they go away and decide if they want to meet on the balcony, indicating they’d like to pursue the relationship or go out the front door and leave the show.

I’ve seen every episode and the series has continued to intrigue me, however, I have an admission to make. As the men talked among themselves about what kinds of women they were attracted to (hot) and the women fretted that they wouldn’t be pretty enough, I pretty much thought I saw the handwriting on the wall. I could foresee a lot of women sitting by their lonesome out on that balcony while the men hustled out the front door in search of some centerfold babe. Unfortunately…I was so wrong!

As the couples spent hours in the dark room, making admissions, telling life stories, and responding to each other with understanding, I saw the men start to rethink their strategies and consider the possibility of dating someone based on the bond that was being created. The women gave lip service to the same idea…until they got to the reveal. I think so many women had built up such high expectations of what their favored guy would look like that, when he didn’t measure up, they ran for the hills! Episode after episode I saw truly attractive men go out on the balcony to meet women who were less than gorgeous, but who possessed great personalities (or so we thought) or a quirky lovability. In one episode, all three women went for this guy. After meeting and getting to know him in the dark, they were ready to scratch each other’s eyes out to win his favor. Then, after the reveal, every single one of them walked out. Why? Because he looked too young. What? It wasn’t as if they were all middle-aged women or anything. No, what it was was – they were all too shallow. This kind of thing happened throughout the show, much more often with the women than the men. It made me disappointed in my own sex.

To be honest, I’ve been known to refuse a date with someone because I could “sense” that we wouldn’t have chemistry and I believe chemistry IS important. But – and this is a big “but,” if I had gotten to know a man first without seeing what he looked like and was totally enchanted by everything I had found out, I’d like to think I would at least have the courage to give him a chance! These women gave all of us a bad name.

I sincerely hope ABC renews this show next year because it is such a fascinating sociological experiment and the hour just flies by. But, if they do, I hope they can come up with some women who realize that beauty is truly… just skin deep.

Just Me – That WAS the guy! And not only was he cute, but he was also a truly neat, sincere, funny guy. He was honestly hoping to meet someone special. After one girl saw him in the reveal she said he “looked like he was wearing his daddy’s suit.”

Maybe not being picked by those particular women was the best thing that could have happened to him!